In such wet treatment knitted and woven textile materials in hank form are transported through a treatment compartment in at least one cycle and are thereby principally dyed, bleached or washed.
In this prior art which is generally known in practice, the entire length of the material or fabric is passed at least once through the treatment compartment so that it comes into contact with fresh solution, chemicals or also necessary mechanical influences and so that the necessary change of substances or solution can be brought about in this way. The aim is to work with relatively high circulation speeds.
High circulation speeds do indeed permit a relatively low solution ratio (the ratio of the quantity of material to the quantity of solution), so that treatment times and consumption of solution and of energy can be kept relatively low. However, high circulation speeds also have considerable disadvantages: uncertain running of the fabric often occurs (for example as a result of snarling or the like); high accelerations of the fabric often lead to undesirably great longitudinal tension; fundamental transport problems also occur with extremely light and extremely heavy materials; due to the influences of foam and chemicals an undesirable slippage can occur during transport of the material; furthermore, the surface of the fabric often undergoes an undesirable mechanical roughing.
Attempts have already been made to remedy some of the aforementioned disadvantages by assisting the transport of the fabric for circulation by blowing in air or inert gas and simultaneously introducing treatment solution. In this case particularly high circulation speeds are used. However, the expenditure on machinery is also particularly high.